Starve the Ego Feed the Soul
Starve the Ego Feed the Soul
Balancing Athletic Excellence, Relationships and Personal Happiness with Olympian Annie Kunz
What does it take to balance the life of a professional athlete with personal relationships and long-term happiness? Join us as we sit down with Olympian Annie Kunz, who shares her incredible journey in track and field, representing the US in the Tokyo Olympics, and the other international competitions. Listen to Annie's firsthand account of the emotional rollercoaster she faced when a season-ending injury threatened her Olympic dreams and how she found the strength to adjust her plans after years of relentless dedication. This episode promises to offer deep insights into self-accountability, personal growth, and the sacrifices required to be the best while maintaining healthy relationships.
Ever wondered about the price of athletic excellence? We explore the complexities of balancing professional aspirations with personal joy and identity. Annie sheds light on the often-overlooked selfishness that comes with prioritizing sport over social life and personal connections. Reflecting on her career and shifting priorities in her 30s, Annie speaks candidly about the challenges of transitioning out of professional athletics and the importance of preparing for life beyond sports. We also discuss guiding the next generation—including our own children—to find a healthy balance between athletic ambition and personal well-being.
From the pressures of youth sports to the unique relationship dynamics faced by elite athletes, this episode covers it all. Annie opens up about how social media has intensified pressures on young athletes and the evolving landscape of college sports. She also delves into the often unseen sacrifices in personal relationships, especially when dating non-athletes or dealing with recurring injuries. Through personal anecdotes, Annie illustrates the mental resilience required to overcome setbacks, emphasizing faith and gratitude as cornerstones of her strength. Whether you’re an athlete or simply navigating life's challenges, this episode offers valuable lessons on perseverance, balance, and finding joy amidst adversity.
Warmly,
Nico Barraza
@FeedTheSoulNB
www.nicobarraza.com
Keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. And I need you to be a minister for a moment and find somebody sitting in your general vicinity. Look them dead in the eyes if they owe you $20, and tell them neighbor, whatever you do, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. It's hard to keep pushing in the world that we're living in right now.
Speaker 2:How is one supposed to find serenity and sanity and strength in the world we live in right now? Hey y'all, welcome back and good morning to you, or, if you are, good afternoon. I keep pushing on. She's represented the US at the Tokyo Olympics, the 2019 World Athletic Championships, the 2019 Pan American Games and two Thorpe Cups, competing in women's heptathlon, and she also played soccer and ran track in college for the University of Texas A&M, where she was an All-American as well too, and so we're going to talk a little bit about Annie's accomplishments. But really, this conversation is one I've been wanting to have for a while between a current pro athlete and a former pro athlete, and I really wanted to have a female's perspective on dating and relating as a pro athlete and how hyper individualized of a sort of outlook it takes to become a professional athlete or become so specialized in something where it really sucks all your energy and your time and it's quite hard to pour into a relationship, raise a family in that way. So we talk a lot about that aspect of being a pro athlete. We also talk about dealing with injury. She ran into a sort of season ending injury right before the Olympics this year. We talk about grieving and just all that comes with working so hard to compete at something like the Olympics and then having an injury happen right before it and how that sort of changes the entirety of your plan right For not only the year but the past three to four years of work you put in to get there and to even be able to qualify or to perhaps make an Olympic team for any athlete. So, whether you're an elite or professional athlete or not, this conversation has a lot of material and I think that's really worthy for people that are just trying to put the lens on themselves a little bit more and stop looking outwardly to blame others for relational struggles or for things not going their way and really sort of take more self-accountability and what can I do and how can I change and how can I grow to be a better partner, to be a better friend, to be a better family member and to show up in a better way. So just really want to thank Annie from the bottom of my heart for coming on the show. This is a great conversation. I mean she's very candid and open and authentic and transparent, and I think that's really hard to achieve that as an athlete on the level of stage that she's on, because you really have to do a lot of work and be a kind and open person to begin with before you get into the spotlight like this. So I've had a couple other high-level athletes on the show and, equally, have been inspired by them too. So I think you're going to like this episode a lot, as always.
Speaker 2:Please share it if you like it. Share the Spotify link. Share the Apple podcast link on your social media. Send it to your friends and family. Send it to someone that you think might media. Send it to your friends and family. Send it to someone that you think might benefit from this episode.
Speaker 2:It's just really a free way you can give back and help the show circulate in more years, and I think we've really had some incredible conversations on this show, and you'd probably agree with me if you're still here listening. The other thing I really want to ask you is please leave the show a five-star written review on Apple and Spotify podcast. Again, I don't ask for much, but it's a free way. You guys can give it back and it gets us higher up on the ratings and therefore people can find the show and listen to it more often as well too. So we have, you know, hundreds of reviews on Apple and Spotify, but we average thousands of listeners every week, so I would love to get those numbers to be more equal. So if you're listening right now and you haven't left a review yet, please do so.
Speaker 2:Like it. It means so much. Honestly, it's something some way you can give back and helps me out a ton. Grow this show and sustain it. And yeah, it takes two seconds of your time, so if you could do that, that'd mean a lot. I don't want to get rambling too much, I want to get to the episode. So, without any further ado, annie Kuntz, all right, y'all. Welcome back to Star of the Ego. Feed the Soul. I'm your host, nico Barraza, and I'm here with Miss Annie.
Speaker 2:Kuntz and I've been trying to get this guy on the show for a while now and, thankfully thankfully schedules aligned. She is a pro athlete and has a myriad of backgrounds in college athletics too. I'm going to let her introduce herself. But first off, annie, thanks so much for joining me. I'm excited to talk to you today. I think you're going to provide a unique perspective on a lot of things with your experience, not only as an athlete, but just as a woman in sports as well too. So welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat about this stuff, um, and hopefully it can resonate with some other athletes or people going through some things. So I'm excited to talk with you, um. But yeah, you want me to give us some background.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. Please start us off. Let us know who you are and where you come from.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I am an Olympian in track and field in the women's heptathlon. So most people don't know what that is. They usually are like, oh, you swim and bike. I'm like, no, it's a little different, but it's the women's version of the decathlon. So the men do 10 events over two days in track and field, the women do seven and it's based on a point system. So however far you throw or whatever time you get, they break it down to milliseconds, centimeters, millimeters, so you get a certain amount of points for each of those and they add it up at the end.
Speaker 3:And I've been doing that professionally for eight seasons now so about eight years and played soccer and track in college. I was actually a soccer player, that was my scholarship and then I redshirted a year. My college coaches really tried to get me to redshirt for soccer because they wanted me to have a spring season to go into our last fall. We knew we were going to be good and so I ended up doing that. I went to Final Four in soccer and then I transitioned for the first time in my life to track and field fully and that's kind of like where it took off for me and I made I qualified for the Olympic trials for 2016, Rio, Um, and I think I went in like dead last, like I think I was like 20th or 22nd however many people they let in that year and I finished eighth.
Speaker 3:Um broke the school record and it kind of opened my eyes to track and field and the ceiling that, the potential that was there, I guess. Um and got recruited from there to come train full time out in, uh, California, at the Olympic training center. Uh in Chula Vista, South of San Diego, Um, so I've been there ever since I packed up my things and moved across the country from Texas and, yeah, it's been a wild journey since then I just want people to understand, like for someone that doesn't know track and field well, like the heptathletes and decathletes are like very, very, uh, just well-rounded athletes.
Speaker 2:You know, I kind of wish I actually would have gotten to decathlon just because I played baseball, played volleyball, sprinted in in high school, like that was all those bases right, being able to jump, being able to throw far um, but I just it just wasn't a, it wasn't a an area of track and field that you really get into, unless someone kind of urges you right, because you don't really, it's just but but I will say I don't know what it was.
Speaker 3:My college coach was like you'd be a great hick to athlete. I'm like a what, like what are you? Talking about so, unless you're a crew that way the cool thing is like the bodies of.
Speaker 2:You know every track and field athlete's different and the bodies of heptathletes and decathletes are, in my opinion, like very well-rounded. You know, you just look like an athlete. You have to be athletic because you're doing all these different things. You have to be coordinated in so many different ways.
Speaker 3:Um like the all-around athlete. I was comparing gymnastics a little bit.
Speaker 2:It's like the all-around athlete you get to do a little bit of everything absolutely yeah, and I mean it just speaks volumes to you're able to play d1 soccer. It's such a high level too, you know, and kind of have your pit, and also I feel like it's pretty rare to be as tall as you are and play soccer yeah right, unless you're goalie. Which did you play goalie?
Speaker 3:I was actually a center forward, so um yeah, most people are like oh are you a defender or goalkeeper. I'm like no, actually I was, I was scoring the goals, uh but yeah I was very tall. Like we always joked, all of my, my classmates, in my, in my, in our class of 2015 are like the otters, because they were like five feet tall. I would just like tower over them man, that's, that's impressive.
Speaker 2:I uh, I I've. I wish I would have had time. You know, soccer is always the same time as like basketball and baseball or whatever in high school and you can only play so much.
Speaker 3:But totally I love all those sports yeah that was the struggle, though, and that's why, like, I didn't really realize my potential in track and field for so long, because track and soccer in colorado are in the same season, so they're both spring sports, so I and obviously soccer is a team sport, so you're not gonna like choose an individual sport over your team sport and let your teammates down, so I would practice at the soccer team full time, and then I just show up to meets when I had time, so I didn't really train for track and field until college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, I mean just already goes. I mean you probably had an athletic base. Obviously I'm sure you're you come from a family of athletes, but that's, that's pretty incredible when you start that late in the sport.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my dad was an NFL, my dad played in the NFL and my dad's cousin played in the NFL, so we definitely have like athletics in my family for sure.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. That makes total sense. Um, so we we chatted before the show started from a couple of things we want to talk about, but I think this is particularly interesting. Uh, when we talk about, you know identities with athletes, right? A lot of my work in counseling right now is with pro athletes that are retiring or had some sort of injury, or college athletes that are going through an injury. I would say probably around 20 or 30% of my clientele is like that just because of my background.
Speaker 3:That's huge. I love that you're doing that. That's amazing. I feel like they're definitely that's like a needed avenue for athletes for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it helps in particular when you talk to someone that's experienced that level of competition. Because, as we spoke about, I'd love to ask you this like there's so much, so many sacrifices you make as an athlete to get to to that level of performance, right At pro, at the Olympic level and even through college and we talked and you brought this up before we started recording is the idea of, like selfishness in sport Right? And if we're really honest as athletes, like there is a you know there's a lot of selfishness that goes into that, and I don't say this in a negative way, but it has positive and negative connotations right. Like you know, you're going to get better at this thing if you focus on it, but then these other areas of your life, it's just impossible to prioritize them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You just can't. You can't split yourself that much, right Like relationships, like dating, like raising a family friends to all that stuff, new connections, for instance, like making new friends, you know, like good luck getting coffee with someone that's a full-time athlete, you know it's impossible. Yeah, exactly, I always joke like the only people that see that, really see pro athletes are their pets you know their dogs and cats, that's just.
Speaker 2:that's just it. So you know, can you speak to a little bit about, like you know, as as you've gotten older right, you're in your 30s now like how maybe your perspective has changed from just focusing solely on the sport and we can get into the Olympics and injury after this, but solely on the sport to maybe shifting a little bit now in your 30s and what's changed and maybe how your perspective has changed as you've gotten older and grown?
Speaker 3:perspective has changed as you've gotten older and grown. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think I think when you have, especially in my experience, having goals as big as you know winning a medal at the Olympics, becoming an Olympian those are really big dreams and goals that I personally didn't want to look back and have any regrets. So I, throughout my career, gave up a lot. Like you give up a career to start, like when I'm retired from track and field, and me starting my career gave up a lot. Like you give up a career to start, like when I'm retired from track and field and me starting my career when all my friends were starting their careers at 21 and 22 years old.
Speaker 3:I missed a lot of weddings. I miss baby showers. I miss just weekends with my friends brunches. Like you give up a lot and I say this not in a negative way I wouldn't change a thing in my in the last eight years of doing what I've been doing. I've been so grateful for the experiences I've had, not to travel the world, but with that it does come a lot of sacrifice and you talk about like relationships as well. It's I always say, like I'm married to my sport, like you kind of have to be Married to the game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're married to the game and it's really like you know it's been for my life track and field, and then relationship, and then family and then like it goes down the line but like track was the main thing and you know, in a way you have, you have to have that mindset to get to those dreams and goals, those big aspirations that you have. I look at my career and I'm so neurotic when it comes to my training. I always joke how crazy it is, how crazy I can get was just making sure. I'm just very routine, I have my supplements, I got everything dialed in. You have to be that way. You have to be that way to to get there.
Speaker 3:Um, it's made me great, um, but I think, especially the last, probably the last two years in my career is when it's I've really started to see more of a shift where I've tried to, I think, and I think it's because when you, when you're nearing the end of your career, we're nearing retirement from your sport, um, you start to think about, okay, like what's next and what is my plan afterwards, and all of your happiness and your joy can't be tied to your sport and I think that for so long my happiness was dependent on how I did in that meet that day or how training was going.
Speaker 3:And I've really really put a lot of work in the last couple of years to figure out what makes me me outside of my sport, what fills up my cup outside of training, outside of track meets, outside of the glory of winning a medal or winning a track meet or, you know, making the podium, and I think that is so important to focus on and figure out, and I wish I could have figured that out earlier in my career, because it's going to be a really fleeting and miserable life if all of your joy is tied to that one thing, because it could be over in a second, and I experienced that this year. So I'm glad that.
Speaker 2:I've kind of put the work in. Before I got to where I am now, and I mean my world changed. I was in a relationship. That relationship ended really quickly after that had a brain injury, like went from, you know, running 140 miles a week, riding 600 miles a week, getting paid as a full-time pro traveling the world to race, to barely being able to walk, you know, and changes in an instant right and that happens in non-athletes to say, someone gets an accident or someone gets sick or something like that, right.
Speaker 2:One of the things that comes to mind when you're talking about this is like how I want to communicate that to my children. Right, I obviously want my children to be athletes. They probably are genetically already. Right, I'm definitely not going to force them into that, but I think that'll probably happen, you know, organically. And one of the things I think that I consistently remind myself is like giving my kids that space to really one decide who they are in sport and athletics, but also not associate fully with that entirely is that identity.
Speaker 2:I think it's hard, because you brought up like you really have to be set and selfish on that and be so dialed right to get to that level. But do you think there's a balance? We can teach. You know younger kids and you know, and, like you know, if you have children, is there? Do you think there, and like you know, if you have children is there? Do you think there's a balance you can teach, or do you think that you have to inherently kind of be so focused on that that you, you lose those other pieces, no matter what?
Speaker 3:I think that I think I think this is such a cool topic because I, especially nowadays, even compared to when I was in high school, I think it's changed a lot, where you they try to pigeonhole athletes into a sport when they're like 10 years old, 12 years old, and I just think the burnout that comes with that or the pressure is, you just can't, I don't think it's sustainable, um, I don't think it's healthy. And I look back at my career and I am so grateful because my parents put me in everything. They put me in dance, they put me in soccer, they put me in but yeah, and I'm like so grateful for that. And then they let me choose. They didn't decide for me. They really figured out what brought me joy, what I enjoy, what I, what friends I like to hang out with. So I'm really grateful for the, for that experience that my parents gave me.
Speaker 3:And I also look back at even when I was in high school, the pressure from club coaches to pick only club and not play high school sports.
Speaker 3:That was huge and I actually remember it being like a big debate for, like, my club soccer team and there was, like me and two other girls that really wanted to play high school sports. We loved it. We had our best friends there and I got a lot of heat from my team for not just doing club. But my parents and I talked about it a lot and they wanted me to have balance. They wanted me to be a kid and experience homecomings and you know, and and go to dances and go, have fun, go to the football games on the weekends and play high school sports. And I look back and I've been, you know, two different sports all the way through college. I've been through a lot of different experiences, with winning as a team for conference championships to the Olympics Like there's a bunch in between. And I look back at some of my favorite memories was like winning high school state championship in soccer, like there's nothing like it.
Speaker 3:The community. They're wrapped around us, it's where you grew up, it's your roots, it's my parents, it's about high school. They're still my best friends, to this day for sure. So I'm so grateful that I have those experiences and I really want to implement that for my children. I just think it's getting much, much harder with the pressure of picking a sport so early and I say you know what I said earlier. I had to be so narrow, focused and tunnel vision and have everything dialed. But that's in my mid-20s. You know, as a professional athlete I don't think it has to be as intense while you're in high school and through college it gets a little bit more intense. But adolescence I think you have to have balance so that kids still enjoy their sports.
Speaker 2:I completely agree and shout out to mom and dad because that's amazing, right? You see so many people, especially social media has proliferated this because there's like this other part that we didn't grow up in of sport. Now that's like the iconification or showing people right through media, like when we were in high school and middle school and playing club and traveling. Like you know, you would get notoriety if it's in the paper or on the news or whatever. But it wouldn't be as. It wouldn't be as like blown up. Right Now you can, like you know, get sponsorships, whatever, when you're 13 or 14.
Speaker 3:Which is crazy. It's just changed so much.
Speaker 2:Even in college sports, right, when we were college athletes, we didn't have that ability to make money. We didn't have that, and it's completely different now, right.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think there are positives from that, but there are also, like these pressures and social cues and drivers that really changed the psyche of an athlete. Now, and when you look at like parents, I mean I completely agree. I think of it like is that like European soccer kid that grows up in like Barcelona or Madrid and they're playing from like six to like 16 and then they sign this big contract, but there's so many kids that like, don't make that to that level and and their identity is completely associated with that.
Speaker 2:Let's say they get injured or something happens. You know you don't allow a kid to be a kid, right. And it's like I had the same childhood where, you know, I was a hyper athlete, like you know, good at anything, with a ball or whatever, running yeah but my, my family was very much like.
Speaker 2:You know what do. What do you want to do? You want to like go play, you know, pokemon cards. We'll drop you off at Toys R Us. You know. You want to get into like video games Cool, you want to. You know, keep playing. Travel baseball Great. You want to try hockey? You know awesome.
Speaker 1:You know all these other things.
Speaker 2:They fully support me. And then I saw like peers you know, particularly their dads but I know moms do this too were so hard on them because they were like living vicariously like you kid, you gotta become a pro, you know, or else I'm not gonna feel like a father, I'm not gonna feel like a parent, right yeah, because I didn't make it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, and I think that's love, then their love feels like it's dependent on how you, how well you do in your sport or whatever exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:And it's so interesting because when we look at like relationships as we get older, like then, you start to find yourself in these relationships that are like love, like loving, but contractual love it's like a transaction, right, it's like if I don't perform, I'm not this person, that I'm unlovable, and we learn those things you know in childhood your joy.
Speaker 3:I think that's even something that I'm kind of going through now and I've tried to unpack this year a little bit more. And the last kind of like the last two years is, I think, when you're driven as an athlete as you probably were younger and then how I was it was like okay, you know, get a scholarship, okay, you got a scholarship. Okay, go pro. Okay, well, be an Olympian okay, now win a medal. And I think when you're always chasing achievement, that can be a really hard lesson to like part of my life. But you kind of like got to unfuck yourself.
Speaker 2:Got to unfuck yourself everybody.
Speaker 3:It's like it's because that stuff is gone and you're constantly chasing these big aspirations, these goals, and like I think that affects your happiness and your joy and um, I think a lot of athletes struggle with that too, just like chasing achievement always and it being kind of fleeting as well that's an issue with with, I think, our generation, younger generations too is that balance of contentment but also pursuit right?
Speaker 2:and I think that, even if you look at like dating culture, which I talk about a lot on the show, uh, is it's like you know you can sweat and there's always a beautiful person right, it's always there. You know you can sweat and there's always a beautiful person.
Speaker 2:Right, it's always there's someone that you align with and at some point there's always temptation too right, and there's like I think there's something beautiful about being able to to balance that, you know, not only intellectually, psychologically, but emotionally, meaning that, like you know, I can pursue something. But also, like, emotionally, the goodness of who I am as a, as a man or as a human, isn't dependent on like capturing that right now. I think it's interesting because it's a hard thing to teach someone, even teach yourself, right. It's like well, I want to get better. Great, right, you have drive. I think that's like a very sexy thing, it's like a very uh, it's like a thing to look like I look up to someone like that, right, but then you can get in these things where, specifically like in like this capitalist mentality, it's like achieve, achieve, achieve right, like, like you know, silver medal, gold medal like you know world record, all these things.
Speaker 2:You can keep going down, though, and it's like when is you? No matter what you get, you're still going to feel an absence inside, right. And that that brings me back to, like you know, when I was the fastest I was as an ultra runner, which is weird because I never thought I was gonna get in a sport Like I'm six to like 200 pounds, my natural body weight, and I got into a sport where, like I'm racing dudes that are my height but like 130 pounds, like I should be playing baseball, but random, you know, random sport. And so I got to this.
Speaker 2:What I thought was like a healthier body weight for me, which is really light and at my my fastest, like sort of, I would say in the sport when I was a full-time pro, was I was probably the most miserable. Honestly, you know and I think it wasn't it wasn't so much like physical health. I felt fine. I wasn't like ever like super, super light, but yeah, I think I just had to pour so much into running that I was tired every day that I couldn't feed these connections in these relationships, and particularly with sports that require, like endurance or running like I think you can get away with it a little bit different with, like basketball, baseball, football, maybe, because you know what I mean the practices, the team aspect, and also like you just have more rest time right, because it's more of an explosive sport, whereas like with track and field and running, you just really don't. You're training every fricking day, every day.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of hours.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of hours, and you're always like, like you're saying your supplements, from you wake up to when you go to bed, like everything in between is really focused and the mental side of it is like an, like a, and I think I'm seeing, even I talk, you know I was, I'm like, I'm neurotic and whatever it's.
Speaker 3:It's the thing that you never get to. You don't turn off. It's not like a nine to five where you can turn it off at five o'clock, or you get a weekend to turn it off.
Speaker 2:It's like it's always in the back of your mind you're like it's celebrated ocd yeah, totally it's, it's, that's what it is. It's like you know, and you need it. You need it to succeed. Uh, because even if you have a coach that's doing it for you, you get certain injury, like you, you. You have to be dialed right. I mean, there's just, there's just no no, I remember even doing.
Speaker 3:I'll do like I'm, like, you know, making my breakfast and I like something that was pops in my head like a cue for shot put. So I'm like gliding across my kitchen like I'm doing shots, but like it's not, like I'm sitting at home and when I played soccer, like on the couch, like thinking about how I'm gonna kick a ball, like it's just a totally different thing to individual sports, I think, and that are so technical like that that you don't get to turn off.
Speaker 2:Really absolutely yeah. So I want to ask going through your 20s, how are you able to be in a relationship date with all this going on? Because in my perspective it was really hard. I almost had to date another athlete. But the interesting thing about that is that when you date another athlete that's also a current pro, it's really hard for both of you to balance that you might never be each other. No, even if you play the same sport, it's just like you're consistently only your.
Speaker 3:the time you share is just that thing which is beautiful, but also I think like it can be quite limiting, right, because, yeah, maybe a little bit more harder to understand like what normal life after would be when you guys are done, because you don't really know anything outside of that exactly, yeah, so so how was your experience I guess you know, going through high school in your twenties as you kind of got into, you know, I would say stardom and athletic achievement, like I'm guessing that was still on your mind?
Speaker 2:Cause we're all attracted to human beings, we all want to be loved, we want to be, you know, in a safe relationship. We want to have that and how did you go through like those experiences?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I think that I've. Yeah, the relationship aspect to professional athlete, elite athlete, olympic athlete is a layer that I don't think a lot of people understand and I think it's been even hard to even like. When you're talking to your friends or things like that and you're just, you know, going, everyone has their issues, whatever. I think it's a layer that a lot of people just don't understand and I think that's been a struggle to um, especially because when you're looking around and you're in your mid twenties and all your friends are, you're like settling down, they're getting married, they're living, they're moving together. Um, I just had a thing that took up most of my time. It took me away, like I didn't get to live close to my boyfriend throughout my career. Um, it's get to live close to my boyfriend throughout my career. It's, it's taken. It's it's also where you know.
Speaker 3:You talk about being selfish. It's something that and and get in sacrificing a lot. When you're dating someone that isn't an athlete or anything like that, it's just like a normal living human working a normal job. The they don't choose to sign up for the Olympics. I chose that and while there's you and while they can be as supportive and amazing it can wear on the relationship because everything is dictated by my sport as far as like how we can be. We can go on vacation, I can drink and eat whatever I want for like a month out of the year because I'm neurotic, like I said, I'm crazy, so I don't drink at all when I'm in season or anything, and we really get like a month, maybe two months off a year. So it's like okay, our vacation is dictated when my season is over. I don't get Saturdays, because half of my Saturday is taken up by training and we lived three or two hours apart. So it'd be like, by the time I get up there, it's you get like a day and a half on the weekends and maybe at one night on during the week. So you kind of talk about like you know, just I, in my experience I felt like, um, when you're you don't get to live with each other and you're dating for a really long time, um, it's almost like when you finally get to see each other on the weekend, it takes a little bit to like recalibrate and then by the time you guys are like settled in, it's like time to go, and I got to go back to training on a Monday morning, so it's just like you're never in, like a groove.
Speaker 3:Um, you're traveling constantly and away from each other. You're going to things separately or I, honestly, would just miss barbecues, I'd miss weddings. You know your, your partners, are going to weddings by themselves, with no date. It's, it's just, it's definitely tough. Um, yeah, yeah, by themselves with no date. It's, it's just, it's definitely tough.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, yeah, it's, it's a layer that a lot of things I don't, a lot of people don't get absolutely. I've lost a couple of friends actually that I uh had in college from not going to their weddings, and understandably so. Like I, was very close with a couple of these and I people and you know I was supposed to be in the wedding and I was traveling for running or in another country, and just you know, couldn't, couldn't come, yeah, and then people don't really understand and it's hard to.
Speaker 3:I had that happen recently too. Thankfully, my my girlfriend, is an Olympic athlete as well, so she totally got it and understood. But I was supposed to be in the wedding, I was supposed to be a bridesmaid and I had to miss it for a track meet because I had to try to get my world ranking up to get my funding for the next year, like, and a lot of people just don't get that. So um yeah, it's tough, it's really hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is Absolutely so. From, I guess, from here, let's, let's kind of pivot to like the injury and identity crisis, right?
Speaker 2:I think, that I want to still talk about relationships. This is just, it's such a profound conversation that not a lot of people can speak to, um, because they don't get to that level of sport. And then when you try to date someone that's at that level of sport, it's just, it's a completely different experience, like you're saying right, Because you almost that person almost has to sacrifice more because they're not going to have a normal relationship until this person leaves the sport, and then they almost have to support that grieving phase too, because that person is going to have a little bit of identity crisis, which a huge yeah, that's a huge yes, yeah which brings me to this.
Speaker 2:So you know, you're preparing for the olympics this year and then, interestingly enough, like we random, randomly were in the same building at the same time in colorado. That was crazy which, yeah, I know so you were getting. Were you being seen or was your dad being seen?
Speaker 3:um, I was being seen. My dad was with me for to find out if I needed surgery or not. So I had to.
Speaker 2:I got like and then to get all my imaging and stuff on my foot yep, okay, yeah, so I was at the stebman clinic getting my shoulder looked at, uh, by a physician there, and then randomly saw your instagram story. I'm like we're in the same building so random, yeah, yeah and and you, you went, you, so you, you had this injury which you didn't really talk about, I don't think publicly, right, right, like you, you kind of most athletes like a little bit.
Speaker 3:Um, I've started to. Yeah, I kind of gave it some breathing room. But yeah, I'm, I'm fully open to talk about it now but, yeah, I definitely went through a traumatic experience.
Speaker 2:Right. So you, you work, you work your ass off, right? You have this goal I'm going to make the Olympics, I want to go for a medal, you know. And then this happens to a lot of athletes. It's like you, you, you get like peaked at your sport and then something happens before, because that's when your body's the most fragile, right, you're kind of still doing like you're, you're dusting off whatever else you have to get better at right at the peak phase, and then you kind of have a little bit of a small rest phase while tapering into whatever your sport is, and then a lot of people get injured within that, like two to three months leading up to Olympics, because shit going on Right, and so what, what happened with yours? And then you know, like, can you, can you walk me through like that initial reaction from when you found out or when it happened, cause I kind of read a little bit about it on social media.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So, um, background, I have a history of plantar fascia issues in my feet. I have really high arches and I think just with the amount of impact and the volume that we have on the track and spikes, it can affect my feet a lot. And so in 2022, so the year right after Tokyo Olympics that season I got injured. I had a partial tear in my right foot that took me out for the whole season. And 2017, um, I actually ruptured my left one um and took out took me up for that season. So I kind of have a history of plantar fascia issues. I haven't had any issues on my left foot since 2017, like not one. Um, my right foot took probably a partial tear is almost worse than I almost wish it would just ruptured, because a partial is like it just took forever to not have pain. It took like a year and a half, I would say, to finally not have pain. So once I hit that year and a half mark where, like, my right foot wasn't hurting, it was leading into the Olympic year, I was like, hell yeah, timing is great. Like I don't have pain, I can train how I want, I can train full time and just like, let it ride.
Speaker 3:And, um, I had a great year of training Like I didn't really have. I had like minor tweaks and tweaks and pains here, here and there, just normal athlete stuff, nothing crazy Um. And then two and a half weeks, well, I guess right after I got back from our like we do a hip tap on over in Austria it's like the probably the biggest heptagon deck outside of the Olympics Um, and I went there and I was like, okay, everything was great, but I need to work on my speed, my top speed. So we got back and I I upped my volume a little bit with the speed stuff and I think that's what probably brought on the plantar fascia issues. Um, but two and a half weeks, or less than two and a half weeks, so right when we're like hitting our taper zone, it was like my last hard 800 workout, which is like right after that workout we taper until the Olympic trials Um, I felt, uh, pain in my right foot out of nowhere.
Speaker 3:It just came out of nowhere, um, and it's it's like the trauma of just knowing that spot where, like if you've had an injury multiple times, you're like it's just like you know, and I we had a high. We had a high jump session and I tried to well, tried to run. It was like, fuck, this hurts. And then did one take off and just like started, just initially, awful pain, started crying, and the crying was not because of the pain, it was because of, oh, my God, this is my, that's my plantar fascia. And so, yeah, it was definitely emotional for like a week where it's just like you can't believe this is happening, the timing of it.
Speaker 3:And then you have to switch gears into okay, what's in my control? Um, how do I manage this? What's going to give me the best opportunity to be able to make the team still? And so my coach and I put me in the pool. Um, and I committed fully to the pool and there's so much, uh, research to show like you can keep your anaerobic fitness and everything from the pool. So I'm like, okay, like I can do this, I'm going to commit to the pool. I hate the pool, but I'm going to do it. And I like was killing my workouts. I was doing a hyperbaric chamber every day for like 30 days.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a lot. Yeah, I just was in it for a week and that was a lot.
Speaker 3:I was living in that thing, like I yeah, I had a resource over here that let me just get in whenever I wanted. So I was in there, like I did everything in my control. Um, I was working with doctors to figure out how to best manage it during the meets, since it's also it was like a whole layer of it where it's not like I'm just a sprinter where I got to get through one event on one day. I have seven events over two days that are spread Like I think it's like six hour gaps between the events the morning and evening sessions. So, working with them to come up with a plan of, like, how we're going to inject it, when we're going to inject it to keep it numb throughout my events. Um, so I had a plan.
Speaker 3:Um, I feel like, once I like decided I'm going to commit and I like it was a, it was a mental strength and readiness that I didn't even expect to have. I felt like I'm still going to make this team, I'm going to do it. Like I felt so mentally strong, um, going into trials which, looking back, I'm like was I just like delusional?
Speaker 2:That's an athlete's mindset, though. You never go into a fight thinking you're going to lose.
Speaker 3:Especially when you've trained for, you know, three years, this Olympic cycle, it's like you're not, you're not going to give up, or anything like that. So I, um was feeling great and then the morning, um, during our warmup, it was my last um warmup over. So, like after that, after this rep, I would have gone under the tunnel and we would have been waiting for the heats to go. And it was out in front of everyone too, cause, like you could, you had the decision you could, you could warm up inside or outside. So I was out.
Speaker 3:It's like my whole family, all the fans were out there and they saw this and I it's my last rep I go over the hurdle, I hear a pop and felt it too Like.
Speaker 3:I felt just like my foot collapse. I didn't feel the pain because it was numb, but I did feel like a difference in like structure and just like fell and I like fall to the ground and then I start crying. And then I realized I don't have time to cry because they're about to take us under the tunnel for heats to start. I walk over to my coach and he just grabs me and he's like you know what it feels like? He's like go for it and I was like okay, and I'm like I can do this, I can do this. So then they take us under the tunnel and I think I was like the fourth heat and which also is just time to think right before the race. I almost wish it would have happened during the race, because the time that time before my heat and then just walking out was I'll never forget it, it was like part of me was realistic, thinking about how okay, I think I just fucking tore my plantar fascia again.
Speaker 3:How am I gonna get through seven events and still make the team? Um, and then the other part of me was like, nah, fuck this, you got it. Like, let's fucking go, I'm gonna make the team, I'm gonna do it anyway. And so it was like this kind of this battle. And when we walked out, I even remember like just taking a second to really get present and like soak in the stadium, soak in the light, soak in my family in the crowd, because I just I think I knew it could potentially be my last race, like I don't know. So, um, and by the grace of God, I got through the race. I ran slow. My coach thinks that I like partially tore it in the warm-up and then halfway through the race it went all the way, because I got through like four or five hurdles, pretty well considering, and then it started to like kind of fall apart and I ran like a second, slower um, which in track and field is a light year yeah, it's a distance from this to like this hurdle.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, it fit across the line and, um, yeah, I just kind of took it in, honestly took it in and they were trying to get me off the track. They like took a wheelchair out. I'm like I did, I just ran a full race Like I'm not getting wheeled out of here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just kind of took it in and just it was, it was shock. It was a lot of shock. And then they took me underneath, they did an ultrasound. They told me it was, it was torn and that I wasn't going to be able to compete. And then I had to go up in the stands and sit with my family which, thank God, my family was there. I don't know how I would have gotten through it without them. But then sit in the stands and watch the other girls compete and that that being in the stands when you're supposed to be out there competing for the Olympics, is that was crazy. That was like agony, that was like pretty torture, torture feeling. So yeah, it's been a lot, but I everything happens for a reason and I'm really grateful.
Speaker 3:I have my faith and um I know that there's some meaning to come out of all of this and it's happening for me and not to me.
Speaker 2:But, um, in the moment, and even just the last month or two, it's been just a lot to process, for sure yeah, yeah, I, I, I didn't watch baseball for I think 10 years after I stopped playing college and people really didn't understand it, but it really was just because I think I had a lot of regret stopping and not continuing to compete at it. And also, just like you know, like you just brought up, when, when you're injured like right now I'm recovering my fifth shoulder surgery Like I'm not watching anything athletic, like I just it just breaks your heart.
Speaker 3:It's like point salt in the wound.
Speaker 2:Exactly Cause you can't do. You know, and I think that's another thing when, when you're, when you go through these injuries, and if you have surgeries or not, like your, your anatomy gets changed and you just don't. When you're a pro athlete, you feel so connected and so, like just every, you can feel everything right Like you, just everything, your. That makes sense. You know you're just dialed on some sports, but then if you, you know a sport like yours, like you have to be so connected with your body in so many ways when you, when you have even the slight, slight, smallest thing off, you can feel it Right. And then if that's exacerbated over a year or two or whatever, some chronic injury, it just it can beat you up Right. And so it's. It's interesting how you bring up, you know, sort of you believe everything happens for a reason. Because that that takes some perspective and I feel like it's probably because of your faith.
Speaker 3:Can you like elaborate a little bit more on how your faith has maybe helped you, you know sort of sift through this injury and maybe some of the expectations and some of the disappointments from it that I'm just really grateful I have that foundation and because it's just, it gives you that perspective when you do go through hard things in life. And I think that I look back, even at my career and I always say, like you don't learn anything from your successes, you learn from your failures and or letdowns or heartbreaks. And this was a heartbreak that I've never felt before. It was a completely, you know, we've all gone through relationship heartbreak and I even look back at, you know, the biggest heartbreaks of my life. So far. Those were the most formative times, I think, of my life, because you really look inward and you learn so much. You learn a ton of lessons, and so I look at this as that it's one of the worst heartbreaks probably of my life, that I'm hoping one of the worst heartbreaks I go through in my life. But it's really going to shape who I am. It's going to build a lot of character in me and resilience and I think also, just looking back at this season, you know, I think God had me go through some adversity and even what we talked touched on earlier identity things of like figuring out who I am through the season.
Speaker 3:I had so many meets this year. I look back at the season and, um, it wasn't as much fun as I hoped it would have been. I had so much pressure, I think, that I put on myself to be perfect, and I just had so much pressure to make the team again, because this time you know, the first Olympic cycle I didn't have sponsors. I didn't have any money to my name like literally none and I was doing it because I loved it. I loved it, I was passionate about it, and not to say that I wasn't this time because I still was, but this time I had, you know, sponsorships, I had endorsements, I had just, I felt a lot more pressure to not let people down. I, you know, even talk about relationships. I was going to retire after Tokyo and then it's like, nope, actually I'm going to keep going and here's three more years of this that we're going to go through and put our lives on hold and not have kids yet.
Speaker 3:And there was just a lot more riding, I think, on my shoulders this Olympic cycle and I'm really grateful that through the season I was figuring out things, like I took a pottery class and like finding things that I enjoy, and like figuring out what makes me me Even looking about, like what am I going to do afterwards? I love interior design, like let's look into that stuff. So I feel like when all of this happened, I wasn't sitting there like fuck what now? Because I've put the work into figuring out who I am and like what makes me happy. And um, and I think all of that happened exactly the way it was supposed to. And it's obviously gut-wrenching when you put so much work and effort into something for so long. You work for three years for one track meet. Like it's honestly it's pretty fucked up if you think about it.
Speaker 3:It's fucking crazy, but it's just like. So it can be obviously gut-wrenching when that thing is taken away from you, but I think God has taken me through a lot those last couple of years to figure out who I am. It's not about me, it's Him, and like glory to Him, no matter what. Like I'm so grateful for where I'm at in life. I'm so grateful for every bit of this journey, while it didn't end at the Olympics. I know I'm going to look back in 10 years and be like, oh, like that totally makes sense. I'm so glad that I went through that to get to here and, um, I just think faith is a huge part of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's beautiful. So you're 31 now, right, that's what you told me. And and uh, now you, you reached a point where, okay, the next Olympics for your sport is four years from now. Basically Right. And if you want to have kids, start a family, you're sort of running up against that timeline too. Now I asked you before we started recording like you know, how do you go about making that decision whether to go all in or to start to focus on life outside of the sport and know when to actually like step away a little bit to be able to, you know, put your, put put energy and put yourself into that yeah, yeah, I think it's tough.
Speaker 3:I think, especially um, like say, I had the perfect season, I went to the Olympics, I won a gold medal. It's like, oh, I'm done with the sport, I'm good, I'll walk away, like that's how I want to, like, you know, home run, walk off it when you get it ripped away from you the way that I did. I think it's harder because you know and I think about it. I'm like, oh, I should have just retired after Tokyo. Like, because you know and I think about it, I'm like, oh, I should have just retired after Tokyo. Like I had the season of my life, the meat of my life at trials and whatever. But I'm so grateful for these last three years because I experienced things that I never experienced the first Olympic cycle.
Speaker 3:But I think it's hard to kind of walk away when it's out of your control and you do struggle with injury. It's like your body decides for you that you're done. That's hard and I think that's the thing I'm kind of grappling with is like is my body telling me it's time and I just don't want to listen because mentally and everything else, I was ready mentally, physically, it's just my body wasn't, wouldn't cooperate, and that's kind of been the struggle the last three years, because 2022, I got hurt. Even last year I had a really bad timing. It was like a, a brown bruise, so it wasn't horrible, but it kind of just my body breaking down over the last three years. So I think that's really hard, um.
Speaker 3:But I also think, you know, it's four years, um. So when you look at it, it's like I could say I settled down, have a kid, then come back to it, like that's a possibility. You see a lot of I think you see a lot more female athletes doing that, especially in track and field, um, and I think that you peak a lot later in track and field, um. That's a huge, a huge mountain to climb, um, and I have so much respect for the women that do it, um. But I think that's also a layer of being a professional female athlete. Is, you know, I think isn't 35 like a geriatric pregnancy? It's like that's what they call it now.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, yeah, 35, you're technically like a geriatric pregnancy. So it's like men, you know, can be married and have kids throughout their whole career. They now have to take time away from the sport Women. It's a different story. So it's all things that I, you, I'm thinking about and, um, I think when I, when I, when I zoom out, it gets a little bit overwhelming and I'm like I don't know if I can do this for four years.
Speaker 3:I'm really right now just trying to take it day by day and like a just get my foot healing better, um, not rush into any decision and know that I could change my mind at any moment again. So it really is kind of like a day day process right now.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. I think the tougher thing too is, let's say, like you decide to have a kid and you know, and you do return to sport. It's also like now you don't, you don't just have one person, you have to sort of neglect a little bit, but then you have your child, right, because you can't be fully present as a parent Usually. If you're just focused on sport, right, you could people, people do a decent job at it. But if anyone's really honest, like you know, like obviously being a parent is probably the most important job any of us are going to do, if we, if we enter into that and then you're focusing on this thing that you love a lot too, that you have this, you know, sort of I want to say like we have this ego involved in it, we want to accomplish right.
Speaker 2:We want to be selfish, you want to win, and then you have to figure out how do you show up as a parent, and then how do you also show up as an athlete.
Speaker 3:And then have the energy to show up for training.
Speaker 2:To do both.
Speaker 3:That's why I'm saying, like the women that have done it, and I think it's harder too, because it's like I'm doing the heptathlon, it's not one event, it's not like.
Speaker 3:I'm training for one event, so that's like the hours that we're out on the track is a lot longer than, say, a one person that's just focused on one discipline. Um, and it's like those first three years of like having a kid are so important to form their connection and their attachments and um, yeah, so it's, it's definitely not an easy, easy task. I think that it's definitely. I think I could do it, like I really, if I really thought about it and put my mind to it. I think I could, yeah, but I have to have a lot of help and I'm like am I bringing my kid to training?
Speaker 2:like I don't know, and you see that a lot honestly sometimes, but it's, it's definitely it'd be tough it's partner dependent too, right, I mean, I think you you look at it and you think about who your teammate is and your partner is in that, in sharing that, and it really is is partner dependent too. You know, I think it's probably easier for people that are in you know relationships, other person sacrificing a lot, or they're just able to show up more in that way. That's a guy or a girl, um, you know.
Speaker 3:But I, but I hear that's a, that's a, a decision, that's, you know it has a lot of weight, has a lot of weight and it's also cool because I think you know I'll even look at the kids that I've seen, the the little toddlers that you know. There's like Nia is a hurdler and she's an Olympic level hurdler and she's like brought her baby out with her when she's got the flag around her and I'm like that's really cool to be like an inspiration for your child and for them to see that Just instilling that in them and seeing they're having to be a role model for them, um, and for them to actually see it is really cool, um, but the logistics of it I don't know.
Speaker 2:I'll be really tough no, it is really cool. It's like it's cool when I see like younger athletes have kids that can do that. It's it's hard as you get older because you're like coming out of the sport, but no, I think it's, it's a really cool environment to raise them into. If you do it in a healthy way, right, you can probably do it in unhealthy ways too, but so, so now you're you're you're working on healing the foot. Did you have? Did you have to get surgery or what's what's up with that?
Speaker 3:no, so I don't have to. Thankfully, um, I don't have to have surgery. Um, they basically told me at the stemming clinic that, um, I ruptured it completely and that with plantar fascia issues, um, like surgery is basically like last option. It's basically they go in and they cut it all the way. So if you have like a partial, they'll just cut it um so that it heals fully um from there.
Speaker 3:So I basically did the surgery myself by rupturing it, um, and it's going to take, they said, about three months till I can run again, um, and then six to eight if I want to like train fully hard again, um. So, yeah, long process, um, and but luckily, like the pain from once the initial inflammation calmed down like after like week three, I think of hearing it um, the pain hasn't been really bad at all. It's just feels like kind of of there's just it's like my arches mush, it's like there's nothing there, it's just it's slowly growing back, um, so like the stability is a little different, but luckily I can still like I can walk and I can do, you know, bar pilates and dumbbell workouts here and there, so I'm like staying sane. That well, I was gonna ask like how are you?
Speaker 2:like that's the one thing that I I lose my mind when I can't be physically active. You know, like right now with, like this, it's like the Peter Millen Steadman Clinic reattached the long head of my bicep. He decided to do that like did some stuff in my shoulder joint and I can't like lift, like I'm losing my muscle mass in my arm. I can't lift anything for, like you know, whatever three, three months or something, right, and you're, and with your shoulder it's like you can't do a lot of things, right, so I'm trying to do legs trying to do these things.
Speaker 2:How are you like staying sane, how are you staying active from coming from like a such a regimented thing? Right Cause, you mentioned bar Pilates being able to do some dumbbell work, but is that like enough for you, or how are you? I?
Speaker 3:think it. I think it is right now, just because um, also, I'm so sorry you're going through all that with your shoulder it just like it's such a struggle, like I just, but I think it is right now I don't know how long that will last just because the Olympic year is so taxing and it's so draining. To be completely honest, like mentally, physically. So by the end of it, you're like, okay, I do just like my body needs a break. Clearly, my body needed a break.
Speaker 3:So I'm really trying to listen to my body, which I don't I like, and I think I haven't done that in the past. Like that's, I think, why I got injured in 2022, because after the Olympics, I was so excited when we got back, I placed sixth in Tokyo and if I would have scored when I scored at Olympic trials, I would have meddled. So I came back being like so eager to get back into it and like hungry for a medal, and I think I took like nine days off after the Olympics of like not working out before I started just like doing circuit training and running on my own and like it's like no time I look back, I'm like you, idiot.
Speaker 3:So there's no, like it's just no, no wonder my body started breaking down so early in the season and I got injured. So I'm really trying to just like listen to my body and give it the rest that it that it needs and deserves. And I really, really, and that's, you know, we talk about finding things that I enjoy. I'm like, oh, what workouts do I enjoy, like when it doesn't come to track and having to make sure I'm fit enough for the, you know, coming in in the fall or whatever it's like. What do I even enjoy doing like what? Like what movements? And so I've just been like walking. I walk for, like you know, two to four miles a day. Like I love that. It's some of my best.
Speaker 2:I'm so not a walker. I'm like I'm like when people, when people say they're going for a hike, I'm like you're going for a walk, yeah.
Speaker 3:I like walk at a pace and like where I live there's a lot of hills and stuff, so but I find like I really enjoy that. I feel like it's some of my best, like thinking throughout the day. I'm just like quiet time by myself and meditation, things like that. I really enjoy bar and Pilates. It's super humbling being a professional athlete and going to those classes with like moms.
Speaker 2:Shit's hard.
Speaker 3:It is so hard. Shit is hard lie, so um yeah. I'm trying to just like dive into stuff that I enjoy that isn't going to like kill my body right now, so for right now it's enough. I don't know how long that'll last, um, knowing me, but for right now it's okay.
Speaker 2:Love it. Well, I'm excited to see what, what comes for your future. I want to ask you, before I let you go, a question. You know, with everything you've done as far as an athlete going through life, and then, obviously you know, with everything you've done as far as an athlete going through life, and then obviously you know, going through relationships and and now coming out of this injury, like if you could give someone a piece of advice. You know, going through different adversity and verse adversity and also coming out of it and having sort of this identity thing to. You know, even if it's one or two pieces of advice, what would you, what would you tell someone that's going through like struggles like this, maybe going through identity crisis, maybe trying to figure out what their next step of life is?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I think that I would say time heals everything. That's part of it. It's so cliche, but in the moment it can feel like your world is over, but it does get better. And I think I would really encourage people to dive in and look inward in those moments to figure out what brings them joy outside of whatever they're going through, whether that's a relationship, whether that's you know, job, whether that's a sport. I think that I'm so grateful for what sports has given me and figuring that out because even in like my relationship it's it's made me so much happier.
Speaker 3:I'm not as, like, codependent and dependent on you know their love to make me happy. So I really think that spending time with yourself and figuring out what makes you you outside of your sport or outside of whatever is bringing you that adversity is going to be huge. And then also surrounding yourself by with family and friends. I think a lot of times when we're going through hard times like that, we isolate and it's probably the last thing that you want to do when you're in those moments. But like reaching out, talking to people that you love, just having a support system to help you get through those. Or, and if you don't want to talk to family or friends, get a therapist. I think that was huge in what I've gone through, just when I've been in harder pieces of adversity, like during COVID, with the Olympics almost getting canceled. I like that's what got me into therapy and I just I think it should be the law. I think everyone should go to therapy.
Speaker 3:And especially if you're in a moment of adversity or just a hard time in your life, I think that reaching out for help is probably the biggest thing you can do.
Speaker 2:Beautiful Annie. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show sharing it out with me.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me, it was really fun.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, I'd love to have you back on. It's important to get down the road of things and see how things develop.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I was honored to spend some time with you.
Speaker 1:So thank you, oh, thanks for giving me a platform to talk about it. I really appreciate it. I wish people could realize all their dreams and wealth and fame, so that they could see that it's not where you're going to find your sense of completion.
Speaker 2:Everything you gain in life will rot and fall apart and all that will be left of you is what was in your heart, in your heart, in your heart. Thank you so much for tuning in to Star of the Eagle, feed the Soul. Please leave us a five-star written review on Apple and Spotify podcasts. It's a free way you can give back to the show and show your support and, as always, if you want to work with me one-on-one, head over to wwwnicoborazacom.